The study analyses the country background, emissions trends, ongoing activities and barriers relating to the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Viet Nam under the UNFCCC. A special emphasis is laid on further mitigation potentials. Fields of mitigation assessed are efficiency, the setting of right incentives for the upscaled deployment of renewables and emissions reductions in the transport sector. The planned increase in coal use – contrary to mitigation ambition in other fields – is assessed in relevance and perspective.

The transport sector already consumes more than half of global oil demand and accounts for almost one quarter of global energy-related CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the sector’s emissions are on the rise, with some forecasts predicting emissions to grow 60% by 2050 (ITF Transport Outlook 2017, OECD/ITF). Such projected increases pose a major challenge to climate policy. They underscore that significant progress in reducing CO2 emissions in transport is essential for meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.

In order to spotlight the crucial importance of the transport sector for climate policy, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Agora Verkehrswende have compiled the report “Towards Decarbonising Transport – Taking Stock of G20 Sectoral Ambition”. The report summarises the mitigation policies enacted for the transport sector by G20 countries, and illuminates where more action is needed. Ultimately, the report aims to serve as a valuable tool for the climate community to gain a better understanding of the overall status of CO2 mitigation policies in the transport sector.

Exploring the synergies and limitations between bottom-up greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and the Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV) of policies and actions in the transport sector – that is the focus of a recently published paper coordinated by GIZ’s Advancing Transport Climate Strategies project. National GHG emission inventories are vital for reporting transport sector emissions. But to what extent can inventories be used to monitor the success of single mitigation measures? Bottom-up inventory models for transport-related emissions allow for a more detailed analysis in comparison to top-down assessments in national inventories that are based on fuel consumption only. They therefore require an extensive amount of data collection. How far can data collected for inventory preparation be used for the MRV of measures?

On the one hand the paper stresses that using data from a bottom-up inventory, such as emission factors, for the MRV of measures enhances the comparability of the effects of measures and can help to develop a consistent national system for data collection and Targeted parameters and use of invetory data for vehicle-based efficiency standardsreporting. On the other hand, data collected for the MRV of measures may be used to increase the level of detail of the inventory. However, differences in geographic boundaries or a lack of detail in inventory data, which is required for MRV of certain measures, can limit the applicability of data from the transport GHG inventory for the MRV of measures. Consequently, it depends on the measure at hand if it can be monitored largely based on data already collected for a bottom-up inventory or if most data needs to be collected separately.